I remember The New Dylans as part of what I'd listen to when exploring American music from back in the UK. They had an organic and powerful sound, they had the tone of a band that had been together forever and had a mountain of things to say with their lyrics. The one very small detail that had changed by the time I came to the US was that the band wasn't a band anymore, Jim Reilley was a hard working songwriter in Nashville and Reese Campbell was a performing musician in the NE. Nature says that when a volcano is alive you can only keep it dormant for so long, and so what happened last year is that Jim and Reese decided to hit the studio again - for the fist time in 18 years - to bring The New Dylans back to life. The whole process was documented by The Tennessean with a fantastic documentary and website entirely dedicated to the band and the creation of their new album: Meta.

I followed The New Dylans the day before their live performance at The Belcourt Theater in Nashville and on the day of their sold-out-and-man-that-was-truly-amazing show. I did it just to be there, to be a (rather large) fly on the wall and witness the magic, capture some of it with my camera. I was hearing their rough mixes online through the band's website, yet having a thing for music I couldn't wait to hear them exist live, play together. There I was, and they were sounding amazing, warm, real, like music should be. It made my soul smile because this is exactly the shit that the world needs: real heartfelt beautiful powerful rocking music, with no excuses and no compromises. It sounded like 18 years had no effect on them at all - if anything they were sounding bigger and bolder. The lyrics of the songs they recorded for Meta are beyond anything crafted today, mentioning "heavy topics such as love and loss, drug dependency, child sex abuse, global warming, natural gas fracking, urban gentrification and the scary state of today's music industry."

Jim and Reese play with Ken Coomer (bass), Eric Fritsch (guitar and keys) and Chris Autry (bass). The New Dylans kick some serious ass!

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